


Artemis and Orion

by theragingstorm



Category: Frozen (2013)
Genre: Alternate Ending, Archer!Anna, Badass!Anna, Dark, Multi, king!Hans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-27
Updated: 2015-04-27
Packaged: 2018-03-26 01:03:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3831391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theragingstorm/pseuds/theragingstorm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The blizzard didn't drop in time. Anna may have gotten her true love's kiss, but she was too late to save her sister. Years later, exiled to the mountains, she is forced to face her and her family's worst enemy for the last time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Artemis and Orion

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by this beautiful work of art: http://gingerhaole.tumblr.com/post/81946111416/oh-hans-if-only-there-was-someone-out-there-you
> 
> I think I may have made myself cry a few times writing this.

It all happened because the blizzard hadn’t dropped, Anna decided. Because of that one detail, ice still lay over the land gleaming like knives, and snow still shone like opals under the northern lights. All because the blizzard hadn’t dropped.

 

 

It had been pure luck that she and Kristoff had found each other in that storm. Blinded by the stinging snow, shambling along helplessly as her limbs froze, she had barely managed to run into him in time.

“Anna!” he’d cried upon seeing her. “What happened to you? Why aren’t you better?”

“I’ll explain later. Please – you have to kiss me. Please.”

And he had, without a beat of hesitation. They had laughed with joy and relief as her hair faded from silvery white back to strawberry blond, as the ice melted from her body. The man who loved her had held her tight, and Anna had silently thanked whatever deities might exist for her good fortune.

Afterwards, they’d fumbled back through the storm just as it naturally began to fade away. By the time they reached the fjord’s still-frozen shoreline, the weather had cleared up, and they could see around them again. To Kristoff’s obvious relief, Sven had managed to haul himself out of the fjord. He and Olaf were napping together under a clump of snowy trees.

“Come on. Let’s get them and go.”

“But what about my sister?”

“She’s okay. She’s safe in her ice palace for now. Maybe we’ll go back later if she sees sense later.”

“Well, okay but can we just try again now, please? I’m not afraid of frozen hearts; I have you now.”

“Well, since you put it that way…anything for you, princess.”

The two of them had been so caught up in their joy and hope that they’d almost missed the cheering crowd. The two of them turned and saw that the citizens of Arendelle had all poured out from their homes to the edge of the fjord, screaming with mixed bloodlust and fear and relief. They were chanting something over and over…

_“Long live the king!”_

_“Long live the king!”_

_“Long live the king!”_

But there was no king. What where they…?

_“No!”_

Anna had broken away from Kristoff, and ran through the crowd, straining to look over their heads. For some reason none of them had recognized her, which was how she was able to see the lone figure coming back over the ice.

He dragged something behind him, something that glittered blue and left red smears behind it. In his other hand he cradled something about the size of a child’s toy ball that left identical smears on his coat.

About twenty feet from the shore, he stopped.

The crowd went quiet.

With one hand, he slowly lifted up his smaller trophy, dripping blood on the frozen surface of the fjord. A woman’s head.

“The Snow Queen has fallen!” he’d shouted, and the crowd had roared again.

The scream of grief that had torn itself from Anna’s throat was lost in the mix of cheers and resumed chanting:

_“The queen is dead!”_

_“Long live the king!”_

The roars pressed in on her eardrums, and her head seemed to clutter with white static. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Kristoff struggling to get to her, but all she could feel was the agony of seeing her dead sister.

_Oh Elsa…you never knew that I would’ve loved you anyway. Would’ve loved you forever._

_Do you want to build a snowman…?_

Suddenly, she was on her feet, charging through the crowd. She burst out onto the fjord, shoving people out of her way to stand before Hans.

He’d been so shocked at seeing her that he’d dropped Elsa’s head. It rolled away from him across the ice to gently rest against her body.

Anna swallowed down her nausea and walked forward until the two of them were almost nose-to-nose. Murmurs rolled through the crowd:

“The princess?”

“Is that the princess?”

“I thought she was dead.”

Hans recovered quickly from his shock and started to smirk at her.

“What is it that you want, Anna?”

She tried to blink the tears of grief out of her eyes. “I–my sister is dead. I’m the queen now.”

“Think again, you silly girl. I’m the hero who saved Arendelle from the monster. This kingdom wants  _me_ as its king, and my first decree will be to banish you far away from here. It honestly would’ve been better if you’d died from your frozen heart, but either way you’re away from my throne.”

Before she could do anything, he’d shoved her down onto the blood-slick ice.

“Your princess betrayed you and lied to us all!” he’d cried out to the crowd. “She allied herself with the Snow Queen, and pretended to be dying to save her sister!”

The people of Arendelle screamed in outrage.

“Kill her!” someone shouted.

Hans shook his head, his awful smirk growing wider.

“No,” he’d said instead. “She’s no threat to any of us now. She will be exiled her to the mountains instead. She can die of the cold, and if she doesn’t, then this princess will live like the lowest peasant for the rest of her days.” He’d turned back to her. “Goodbye, traitor.”

Surrounded by hateful stares, Anna turned away from him and the people she’d once called her subjects. She walked away from the crowd, tears dripping down her cheeks.

Maybe, she’d thought at the time, it was all for the best that she wouldn’t be queen. What could Anna have that could help them? All she’d done was ruin everything.

It was her fault that Hans had gotten so close to the throne. It was her fault that Elsa had lost control. So now it was her fault that her sister was dead.

A hand laid itself on her shoulder, and she looked into a pair of brown eyes full of pain and love.

“I’m not leaving you on your own.”

“You’d let me come with you?”

“Of course.”

 

 

Present-day Anna was startled out of her memories when her son launched himself into her lap.

“Mama!” he squealed, burying his face in her stomach. “I win! I got here first!”

“Awwww, no fair!” Olaf moaned, plopping down on the floor. The little snowman was often the one who ended up watching the children, mostly because he was the only one who couldn’t work. Luckily, he didn’t mind. He was practically a child himself. “Ah well. I’m gonna win next time!” he told the room confidently.

Petter looked up at Anna as conspiratorially as a four-year-old could. “He says that  _every time,_ ” he whispered. “But  _I_  always win.”

Anna laughed and hugged him tighter.

“Mama!”

“Sorry.” She loosened her grip and settled for ruffling his tangled blond hair instead. “How’s your sister doing?”

“Still sleeping. You said she was gonna get interesting when she got older. All she does is stick things in her mouth and drool on stuff.”

“Well, she  _is_  still a baby.” Anna rocked back and forth in her seat, and Petter lay back against her. Over in the center of the room, Olaf sat on the floor and played with one of Joan’s teething rings. “Give her a little time, okay? I mean, I must’ve been pretty boring when I was a baby.”

“You? Boring?” Petter sounded incredulous. “No!”

“Oh yeah. Your aunt used to say–” She stopped.

Petter craned his neck back to look at his mother.

“Mama?” he said quietly. “You miss her a lot, don’t you?”

Anna opened her mouth, trying to decide how to respond. She settled for just nodding.

Her son hugged her tight around the middle. “It’s okay, Mama. I got you.”

Anna choked back a sob and hugged him again in return.

As she did, the door opened. A gust of cold wind blew in, and a huge man covered in white powder stomped inside their cabin, brushing clumps of the snow off onto the floor. He wasted no time in yanking off his scarf and hat before grinning at his family.

“What did I miss?”

“Papa!”

“Kristoff’s home!” Olaf squealed, and both the boy and the snowman ran over and tackled him around the legs.

Anna got to her feet, careful to step around the splintered ends of the floor. Their family’s cabin was small, and she and Kristoff had had to build it themselves. But it had held after all those years, and the fireplace kept the whole house warm. Even with the eternal winter that was still hanging over the land.

After Petter and Olaf detached themselves from Kristoff’s legs, Anna finally headed over to her husband. He bent down to kiss her, neither of them minding the bits of snow that drifted down into her hair.

Petter made a disgusted noise at his parents.

“Come on, Olaf. Let’s go play in Joan’s room.”

Kristoff chuckled softly as they ran off, hanging his winter gear up by the door and slinging his bags down on the floor. He headed over to the fire, and collapsed down in front of it. Anna sat down next to him and leaned her head on his shoulder.

“How are things in the next kingdom?”

“Better.” His gaze remained on the flames. “It’s still quite chilly there, but at least it’s not covered in snow like here always is. I’ve got to say…traveling for days just to get essentials is getting old.”

“I know.” Anna traced her fingertips over where his roughly forged wedding band rested. “And I miss you when you’re gone.”

Kristoff planted a kiss in her hair. “Now you know how I feel when you go out hunting.”

She scowled playfully up at him. “It’s not the same. I’m usually only gone for a day at most. There are still plenty of animals around the mountains. Cause you know, they were already used to constant cold. The winter wasn’t much of a change for them.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“But I miss you then too.”

“It could be worse,” Kristoff pointed out. “There’s so little food now in Arendelle, the people there who haven’t learned to adapt are beginning to starve. No one’s willing to trade anymore. We’re probably going to have to move into another kingdom to get enough essentials.”

Anna said nothing, just leaned against him.

“Feistypants? You okay?”

“Hans hasn’t been doing much of a job ruling all this time, has he,” she said softly. “The eternal winter didn’t end when he killed Elsa…he thought that it would. But her curse was too powerful. And he was going about it the wrong way…”

Kristoff gazed at her thoughtfully. “Do you think you’ll ever know for sure if your theory’s right?”

Anna snuggled up even closer, soaking in his warmth. “I’m certain that it’s right. Know how I know?”

“Because of us?”

She looked up at her husband. “Yes, exactly. I love you so much. You know that, right? I mean, of course you know. But I just like saying it to you.”

Kristoff smiled. “I love you too.”

He kissed her again, and she felt like she would melt with love in front of the fire.

 

 

The long night began to fall, and Anna blew clouds of steamy breath on her gloved hands to ease the numbness in her fingers. At the same time, she closed her eyes and thought of Kristoff kissing her goodbye, of them snuggling with the children, of him making love to her. As the memories swept over her, the cold seemed to fade.

 _Almost like when my heart was frozen,_  she thought to herself with a small grin.

With well-practiced skill, she pulled an arrow from her quiver and nocked it. She slipped out from the cover of the thicket she’d been crouching in, and walked carefully through the snowy woods.

Her eyes roving to the ground, she saw that the tracks of deer and wolves lay in the white powder. Still fresh, in the case of the wolves: the prints were barely eroded at all. Better try here tomorrow instead.

Anna kept her bow raised as she stole back through the woods towards her camp. She’d been surprised a few nasty times back when Kristoff had been still teaching her to hunt. Still had the scars to prove it.

But no animals attacked as she headed back to her camp. In fact, all of the woods seemed unusually still that night. Anna built a fire and began to brew some pine-needle tea, but kept glancing up and around every few seconds warily. The whole time, she kept one hand on her bow.

An owl flitted through the branches and landed on a tree near her and regarded her. Anna barely had time to register this when the owl let out a cry. Suddenly, she noticed the sound of crunching footsteps through the snow, rapidly growing closer.

Anna leaped to her feet, yanking the hood of her cloak down over her face and nocking an arrow. The owl swooped into the air and flew away just as a handsomely dressed man walked into her clearing.

She nearly dropped her bow when she saw him. Obviously, he was older…with auburn stubble on his cheeks, premature lines in his forehead, and an unpleasant grimace on his face. His cheekbones stood out more sharply, and on closer inspection, his clothing was not nearly as fine as a king’s should’ve been. But her father’s old crown was still nestled in his hair.

Hans came to a stop about ten feet in front of her campfire. He looked at her with obvious distaste, but not with recognition.

“You, peasant. I’m looking for someone. Do you know of a young woman in these parts named Anna? She’s quite short and skinny, with braided red hair and freckles, tends to ramble and giggle a lot. If she hasn’t been eaten by the wolves already, I need to find her.”

Anna only huffed at him in disgust.

Hans growled under his breath and walked over to her.

“Listen, peasant. This is a matter of utmost importance, not that you’d understand. If I don’t find this woman, who knows how many people might die, including you.  _Listen_  to me. She’s the former princess. _Now_  does that sound familiar?”

In response, she lifted one hand off her arrow to throw her hood back from her face.

He stared at her for a moment, not comprehending. Then understanding and shock spread across his face.

“ _Former_  princess?” Anna said innocently. “I thought we were on better terms than that, Hans.”

He recovered. “Says the woman who has an arrow leveled at my chest.”

“Says the man who had me exiled here.”  _And who killed my sister._

“That situation may be able to change.” Hans’ eyes dropped to her hand. “ _You’ve_  certainly changed since I last saw you. Tell me, how exactly did you convince that man to marry you? Did you tell him that you had a castle waiting back home, and that it would be any day that you’d return to it? Has he figured out the truth about you yet?”

Anna knew that he was goading her, but she couldn’t resist snapping back, “He married me because he loves me, idiot.”

“No one really marries a princess – even an exiled one – for love. Especially not one like you.”

Her hands shook on her bow. “Why are you here, Hans?”

He leaned back on his heels casually. “Normally, I would leave you to freeze out here in the wilderness and say good riddance. But I have a problem on my hands, Anna. The Snow Queen is dead – now that really  _is_  good riddance – but her curse is still on the land, even after six long years of winter. We can barely get any supplies from other kingdoms, and have to scavenge the forests for anything else. The people are beginning to starve.

Now, the people of this kingdom are still, as always, besotted with me. But–” Anna saw him hesitate, and noticed the way his throat hitched when he swallowed, “–they are…unhappy that the snow still lingers. They want an end to the winter, and who can blame them? That’s why I need you, Anna. What better way to find out how to end Queen Elsa’s sorcery…then with her blood?” He paused, and gave her the same sweet imploring look that had made her smitten when she was eighteen. “I believe – and there are many others that feel the same – that you have the ability to stop this winter. You have some hidden power that can counteract the curse.”

Anna took a deep breath, and her hands steadied again.

“I’m not a sorceress,” she told him. “Like you said – I’m completely ordinary.”

“Liar.” Anna saw something – envy? – flash in his eyes. “What do you have that made you so convinced you could stop your sister? What’s your secret?”

_You don’t have to protect me; I’m not afraid!_

_I will be right here…_

_I know we can figure this out, together!_

“I loved her.”

Hans’ face crumpled. He snarled in derision and kicked a patch of snow.

“You’re lying,” he spat. “I know you’re lying. No one can stop this kind of magic with a few pretty words and misguided feelings.”

“Oh really?” Anna retorted. “Well, that’s what  _started_  it in the first place, wasn’t it?”

Hans shook his head.

“Anna, you fool. Don’t you see?” He swept a hand around him, indicating the frozen landscape. “This was  _your_  fault, not mine. You’re the one who set your sister off, who failed to use your power to stop her. You’re the one who sent your own blood, even if she was a monster, to her death by revealing her powers. It’s all thanks to you that this winter is still on the land. So it’s up to you to come quietly with me so we can end it…together.”

Anna stared down the length of her arrow at him.

“And if I don’t?” she asked.

Hans smirked, drawing a sword. The same sword that had cut off Elsa’s head.

“Then we’ll end the curse the hard way…by destroying the last of the Snow Queen’s line of magic.”

Defiantly and stubbornly, she only glared at him.

“So be it.”

Her arrow let fly, but her aim was off and it only glanced his shoulder. He hissed in pain and lunged at her before she could nock another, knocking her bow out of her hands across the icy earth.

Anna fell to the ground and lunged for it, but Hans got there first and smacked it farther away from her. Then he kicked her roughly in the ribs, and a sharp wave of pain radiated across her chest.

She coughed. No blood. That was good.

But her relief was short lived as he towered over and stood on her, his boots pinning down her wrists. The fragile bones threatened to snap under his weight, and she could feel them and her bruised ribs screaming in protest.

Hans leisurely raised his sword, looking down at her with a kind of fascination.

“If your sister had had the guts to fight back or look me in the eye, this would be like repeating history. Either way…the world’s better off without your poisonous blood living in it.”

Anna coughed again, and smirked up at him.

“Go ahead, then. Kill me, like you killed Elsa. But you won’t be destroying the royal family of Arendelle like you think. My  _children_  are still alive, you son of a bitch.”

Another flare of shock crossed Hans’ blandly handsome face, to be swiftly replaced by ugly rage.

“Then they’ll die too!” he roared. “I’ll search the mountains, tear up every rock if I have to. This kingdom will be  _mine_  and mine only, not under the thrall of some witch’s family and her curse!”

_Go ahead; keep yelling._

While Hans had been raging, he hadn’t noticed that he’d stepped off Anna’s wrists. He also hadn’t noticed that her quiver was still strapped to her back.

“I hope I’ll be able to watch your husband’s face as your children die. Too bad  _you_  won’t be around to see it, you stupid slut. Just like it’s too bad your sister can’t see this.” He raised his sword again.

Steel flowed through Anna’s veins. Faster than she could’ve thought, she whipped an arrow out of her quiver and drove it down into his leg.

Hans dropped his sword, howling in pain. Anna rolled away from under him and grabbed her bow. In a second, she had nocked another arrow and aimed it at him.

He picked up his sword and staggered to his feet, lunging at her. Her arrow pierced his already wounded shoulder and the sword clattered down on the icy ground again. Hans fell to his uninjured knee, gasping.

Anna slung her bow over her shoulder, looking at him. A pang of sympathy shot through her as he knelt before her and bled into the snow.

“Really Anna?” Hans gasped. “Why would you do this to your people? Why take the monarch that they love, before dooming them to suffer and die in the cold? As if causing this winter wasn’t enough…”

Her sympathy vanished.

“’ _My_  people?’”

Hans flinched back from the force of her anger.

“You weren’t so keen on calling them  _my_  people when you plotted to destroy my family so you could steal our throne. When you lied to them and blamed me for what  _you_  did to turn them against me. I blamed myself for years for what happened, but you know what? It’s not my fault. It’s yours. You’re nothing but a selfish, lying murderer, and you will  _never_  be able to end this winter. Not if you kill me and my children, not ever.” She paused, her breath heaving out in clouds. “And I can’t bring back my sister. But I  _will_  make sure that you’ll  _never_  touch anyone I love ever again.”

Hans struggled to get to his feet.

“You’re lying,” he rasped, clutching his shoulder. “There’s a way to end it, and you know–”

“I do know. But  _you_  can’t do it.” She turned away and kicked snow over the embers of her campfire. She knelt down and began packing up her things, before slinging them over her other side and starting to walk away, her back to him.

She made it about thirty paces, her braids whipping in the cold breeze and her footsteps crunching loudly.

There was a snarl of exertion, and a flash of the blade’s steel.

The deliberate twang of a bowstring.

Hans dropped his sword for the last time. He fell backwards against the snow, an arrow protruding from his chest. He shakily tried to get up, coughing spatters of red onto the white-frosted earth.

Anna stood over him, her empty bow clutched in her hand.

“When did my sister ever lose control of her powers, Hans?” she asked softly. “When she was afraid. But when could she control them? When she was happy…and loved.”

His eyes were beginning to glaze over, and he weakly tried to reach for his sword. She kicked it away.

“Only an act of true love can thaw a frozen heart. My heart was thawed years ago when Kristoff saved me, and he and my children still keep it warm. But you killed Elsa before she could feel loved again, before I could  _prove_  my love for her. That’s why  _you_  couldn’t get rid of her curse.”

She knelt down before him, and drew one more arrow out of her quiver. His breath was coming out in a rattle, and for the first time, she could see fear in his eyes.

_I’m sorry I couldn’t save you, Elsa. This is for you now, and for the rest of my family._

The arrow came down and pierced his heart.

“Oh Hans. If only there was someone out there whom you loved.”

His last breath came out in a sigh, and his body collapsed. He seemed almost to melt; relaxing into the snow, his face becoming blank. There was nothing left of the man she’d once called her true love.

But as Hans lay dead, a wind started up. Unlike the harsh arctic blasts that she’d known for the last six years, this wind was warm and gentle. It seemed to kiss her forehead and gently brush her cheeks, before moving off towards the kingdom below.

Anna took her father’s crown from Hans’ head and got to her feet. The snow was already softening, and tiny green shoots began to finally peek out of the white carpet.

Anna turned to look down towards Arendelle.

_They need their queen._

She shouldered her pack and bow before heading back towards the cabin where she’d lived for six years. She needed to tell her family the news.

_Come on, Elsa. It’s time to go home._

 

–Fin–


End file.
